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58. On 5 August 1979, Mauritania agreed to sign a peace treaty with Polisario. Morocco, while agreeing to OAU compromise plan for a cease-fire and a referendum on the political future of the territory under dispute, continues to engage in armed combat with the Polisario forces whose efforts are marked by ever-increasing vigour.
59.
There is no consensus between the Governments concerned on the numbers of people displaced by the conflict. In 1966, the group of Sahrawis brought to the attention of UNHCR's Executive Committee was estimated by the Algerian authorities to number 50 000, primarily women and children. These people were living in some 20
20 camps
camps in the Tindouf area where, owing to exceedingly harsh desert conditions, they
they were unable to be self-supporting.
60. Following a a request for humanitarian assistance by the Algerian Government, the High Commissioner was asked, in September 1976, by the Secretary-General of the United Nations to co-ordinate the assistance programme for the group in the Tindouf region. An assistance programme was initiated which was administered by the Algerian Red Crescent, and which consisted basically of a care and maintenance programme to provide foodstuffs, tents, clothing, medicines and domestic utensils. It followed and complemented an aid programme financed by an appeal launched in December 1975 by the ICRC and the League of Red Cross Societies, intended to benefit not only those in Tindouf but also people in need in the former Spanish Sahara, where the relief was organized by the Moroccan and Mauritanian Red Crescent Societies.
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61. UNHCR has continued to provide humanitarian assistance to the Sahrawis in Algeria, being requested by the Executive Committee at its twenty-seventh session in October 1979 to undertake at the same time "discussions with the Governments with a view to the speedy implementation
of permanent solutions including voluntary repatriation and durable settle- ment. (A/AC.96/534). Both the High Commissioner and the President of ICRC have held discussions with the Governments concerned at the highest level, without.
without a possibility of durable solutions being found and without ICRC being allowed access to prisoners taken by Morocco and by the Polisario since 1978 and 1976 respectively.